The Cowan Job
by Elle-05
Summary: Ocean's 11/The Italian Job; Sequel to 'The Ocean's Job', Danny, Rusty and John hit a glitch on a job, and Stella's getting married.
1. Starting with the Beginning

**The Cowan Job**

**Chapter 1 – Starting with the Beginning**

Disclaimer: Whilst I do plan on adding the odd original character, a vast majority of what is here belongs to 'Ocean's 11/12' and 'The Italian Job'.

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"_What did you think would happen?" The teenaged blonde argued over her shoulder, laughing at her two best friends who were slowly following behind her._

"_It's not as though what we did was against any rules," the boy argued, glaring at her. "Anyway, it was an accident!"_

"_And," a brunette added, "Not even my fault."_

_Stella just laughed louder as Linus turned to glare at his lab partner. "Not your fault?" he asked, "How is it any more my fault than yours?"_

"_You said you'd take care of the clean up." She told him simply, smirking at his almost outraged expression._

"_No," he told her leaving no room for argument. "I said I'd take care of the scalpels, you're the one who decided a dead rat was better off in a cupboard than the rubbish."_

"_What?" Stella gawked at the pretty brunette as the real story began to come together._

"_It was not a cupboard, it was an esky." Claire told her pointedly "And that's where we got it from."_

"_Claire," Linus started slowly. "When we got it, the esky was cold, by the time we had finished the esky had gone warm and then over the weekend it got hot, and thus you get a smell."_

"_That's what you were fighting with Mr Campbell about?" Stella was laughing so hard she gasped for breath as she watched her two friends argue. "That is so much better than the story Claire told me."_

"_What did Claire tell you?" Linus asked suspiciously before being spun around by a pull on his arm and marched back down the hallway. Claire muttered something about how they were going to be late for the detention as she pushed him around the corner not bothering to say goodbye to their friend in her haste. "You know, I can just make her tell me later." Linus told the brunette holding his arm in a death grip._

"_By which point I won't see you until tomorrow and you'll be over it by then," she shrugged smirking at him as he held the door open for her following her inside._

_Needless to say Linus found the detention dull, two hours of writing the same lines over and over again while Clair's habit of twirling her hair around her pen became more and more distracting. He breathed a sigh of relief when the clock hit five o'clock and the teacher told them they could leave._

_Linus walked with Claire towards her locker as she pulled out her books for the night. He was only half listening as she told him about the 'friends' episode that would be on that night and how she had read on the internet that someone was going to get married in it. He knew better then to try and join in on her monologues, unless the person really knew what they were talking about it could be dangerous, so seeing he had no idea he decided to leave it be._

_The air outside had gotten so cold it hurt Linus' throat as he breathed, but somehow Claire never seemed even slightly affected moving straight on from 'Friends' to the new series of 'Law and Order' that was starting next week and how she was 'in absolute agony over the wait'. _

_The walk to the Cowan's front door was shorter than either of the teens would have liked, and before long they were making their way down the twisting driveway that lead to the Cowan's house. Claire suddenly stopped speaking as the house came into view, but neither were looking at the house. Rather their eyes were fixed on the silver Merc in front of it._

"_I thought you weren't expecting your dad for another few days," Linus sighed softly running his hand along the smooth hood as he walked passed it._

"_I wasn't," She told him, though her eyes and voice seemed to be somewhere else completely, "Guess they pulled out." She shrugged turning back to him as he simply nodded. This was possibly what had brought the three of them together in the first place, the ability to be open about what was going on at home and knowing the others understood. Claire knew well that Linus and Stella were the only two at school who possibly could have known what she was telling them, and that was fine with her._

_After a quick peek through the window by the door she turned back to Linus, an uncharacteristic blush surfacing as she indicated towards the house, "You probably shouldn't..."_

"_No" he agreed quickly, nodding as he kicked some rubble with the toe of his shoe, "I'll see you tomorrow?" _

"_Definitely," she agreed smiling "Tell Stell' I'll see her then."_

"_Will do," both teens stood somewhat awkwardly for a moment before Linus, after taking a quick peek through the windows around them, leant forward to place a small kiss on her lips before pulling back abashed. "See you." _

_He stepped quickly back off the porch before turning to move back up the driveway giving her one last wave before he disappeared behind the trees. Moving back up the driveway alone took about half the time it had taken them to go down, but it was always like that for Linus, he was a naturally fast walker and his grandfather had always encouraged it saying the ability to move quickly without being noticed was very important for an individual such as himself._

_

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_

_Stella sat at her desk ignoring the math problems in front of her as the music in her room threatened to damage her hearing. She gave herself credit for at least attempting the problems, but having found herself at a dead end was waiting for Linus to get back so she could have some help. _

_Movement on the street caught her eye as she saw Linus turn the corner he was half-way up the street before he paused. Not moving for just a moment before he turned and left the way he had come. Even from so far away the blonde could tell there was something wrong with her friend_

_His pace was hurried, even more so than it normally was, Stella hurried to the front door only to find that he was already outside of her sight. She closed the door softly knowing she wouldn't catch up with him now. She sat in her room wondering if she had imagined that something was wrong at all, it was unlike Linus to not tell her if something was going on, though she'd noticed that both of her good friends had been acting odd lately._

_It was not quite an hour later there was a soft knock on her door._

"_Hey," she said looking up, feeling surprisingly relieved to see Linus enter her room, "is everything alright?"_

"_Of course it is, why wouldn't it be?" he dropped his bag by her door before settling into a chair by her desk. He seemed at ease but Stella felt as though he was feeling something else. There was an underlying look in his eyes of exhaustion, and something else that may have been bewilderment. _

_Not wanting to add to any upsets, she simply shrugged. "I saw you coming back before."_

"_Claire left her calculus book in my bag." He told her quickly, standing up again. "I better do my homework, I'll see you later." _

_He left so quickly Stella didn't even have a chance to ask about his rush. It wasn't until the door down the hall was closing that it occurred to Stella, in all the time they had spent together that was the first time she ever felt as though her friend may have been lying to her, she left herself a mental note to ask him about it later. _

Stella never did ask Linus about the lying. In fact by that time the next day she didn't even remember the conversation.

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It's been ages I know, but the story's finally being written in a way that might make sense to someone other than myself.

Please Review

Elle-05


	2. The More Things Change

**The Cowan Job**

**Chapter 2 – The More Things Change**

Disclaimer: Whilst I do plan on adding the odd original character, a vast majority of what is here belongs to 'Ocean's 11/12' and 'The Italian Job'.

Thank you so much Holly, PrInCeSsFBi and He whom must not be named for reviewing

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Stella smiled softly as she looked down at the photo in her hand. It was of the three of them on her 15th birthday, they had wanted to just go to a movie but Annie insisted on throwing her a party, technically though it was joint party but Linus had managed to keep up his long standing tradition of keeping all attention off himself.

The photograph was taken just after Claire had fallen (or possibly been pushed) into the pool, her hair was sticking to her face as the pink dye they had jokingly put in earlier soaked into her shirt.

Stella placed the frame on the shelf turning back to the box. She had been thinking about Claire a lot lately, but the part of her that had paid attention in psychology insisted she was simply projecting her feelings about Linus' position to that of the death she had come to terms with, in an attempt to distract herself. Of course that thought was also pushed from her hand to remind herself that Linus wasn't dead. I had been 16 months since L.A. and there had been no change.

She felt as though everything should have stopped.

It was odd trying to adjust to life without the Caldwell's, they were her family. Her mother died when she was young and her father spent a long time in jail, so she had lived with them.

Annie was her mother just as much as she was Linus', and even when her father was with them they had continued to do regular mother-daughter things. Bobby was like a loving uncle who could step in and out of the role of surrogate father so seamlessly there were times she had been surprised that nothing ever got awkward. And then Linus was her best friend, her brother. He had been the one constant in her life and she the one in his. Linus had been with her before Claire, and after Claire he was the only person she could speak to. For almost six month after their friend's death she had said almost nothing to anybody but him.

For a long time Stella had believes that loosing Claire was the worst it could get, now it seemed to pale in comparison to the past 18 months.

Charlie and her father had done what they could. At first it had just felt clingy, but she later realised that in a lot of ways her dad had lost even more then she had. Whilst she still had Charlie and other friends from school to see, her father had nobody. After her mother's death the Caldwell's became as much his family as hers. Her father and Bobby had been good friends a long time before either of them married, and chances were that even if her mother hadn't passed so early Linus and she probably still would have grown up together.

Linus was going to wake up, she never doubted that. It had been over a year since Charlie had asked her to move out of Chicago and live with him in Boston, however she had only just agreed. Her father convinced her that it was for the best, he was working more now and it was obvious he felt better knowing that someone was with her. John had still not completely forgiven Charlie for lying to him for so long, but he had eventually admitted that Charlie was a good man and one of the few that John deemed good enough to be trusted. Perhaps not completely with her, but he was better than most.

In a lot of ways leaving Chicago wasn't as hard as it should have been. Leaving Linus was and always would have been a hard thing to do. But missing him was no longer a new emotion to her, she had done nothing but miss him for the past 18 months. Whilst she did feel guilty that she could no longer see him every Saturday, on some level she knew that her visits only made herself feel better. Lenny didn't know she was there, the doctor's had told her as much many times. Anyway there were others, her father still lived in Chicago so should anything urgent happen he could take care of it, and some friends that two of them had bothered staying in touch with were happy to drop by on occasion just to be certain that everything was well in the hospital.

Stella's head popped up -from the ornament she was trying to arrange just so on the bookshelf- as she heard the phone ring. Taking a quick sweep of the room she discovered that at least three boxes would need to be moved for her to get to the phone, deciding that she would never get there in time Stella sighed and ignored the phone. She picked up her pace pushing book and pictures onto the shelf haphazardly simply trying to empty the boxes. She wanted to finish this room today, and leaving phones unanswered had never sat well with her. She finished the box quickly cleared herself a path to the phone, and was half way through the next box when the phone rang again. Afraid that it might be the same person calling she abandoned her box and manoeuvred her way quickly out of the room.

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"East would be faster," John argued

"Harder to plan though," Rusty responded, John had to nod in agreement, if anything went wrong on the east exit they were in trouble.

"So we'll"

"Have to."

Danny gave a quick nod "Sounds good."

John looked between the two of them waiting for someone to explain whatever had taken place. "We're taking the south then?"

Danny looked up as if only just noticing that John was there. "Yes, sorry about that." It was not often he and Rusty had included anyone else in the planning of a job. Usually when they worked someone as experienced as John the planning was done before either they were invited, or they invited the other thief.

Livingston called Rusty across the room to where he was sitting with his laptop.

John's eyes never left the blueprints. Danny noted the exhaustion around his eyes which he knew had not been caused by the job. Whilst John was an excellent actor it was easy to see how the past year had affected him, he was not the all but carefree person Danny had once been so used to working with. Glancing around the room Danny rediscovered what he already knew they were the only four there, the rest of the team (who really weren't good enough to be on a job like this) had gone for dinner hours ago and not yet returned. "How is he?" Danny asked quietly.

John did not even pretend to not understand who the younger man was talking about. "Not good," he answered honestly, "Condition hasn't changed," seeing Danny's obviously confused look, "The doctor's say that there is an excellent chance he'll go brain dead soon, then they have to unplug him." Had he not been so well trained in concealing his emotions, Danny's breath would have caught in his throat. "Nothing's certain," John assured him "And they still need to pass everything by Stella." He let out a small laugh obviously having remembered an incident that Danny felt better not to pry into.

"How is Stella?" He asked instead.

"Fine, she's moved to Boston, and of course the wedding's next week, you and Tess are coming coming aren't you?"

"Yes," Danny nodded, he had completely forgotten about the wedding in planning the job "No chance she'll postpone again?" He was almost hopeful.

This time John really did laugh, "No, Bella would probably rip her apart if she did." Danny smiled remembering the story John had told him concerning his daughter's new mother-in-law. "We'll be long done by then though." John assured him obviously having misread Danny reluctance to attend. It was obvious that inviting himself along with most of the Vegas team had been John or Charlie's idea. Stella, whilst never being outright about it, clearly blamed them for what had happened to her friend, and Danny could not blame her. Stella would probably have been more than happy to postpone the wedding for however long it took Linus to show a change. Danny believed that if her friend couldn't be there, than having the ten of them to remind her of why that was, would not be her ideal day. But Tess wanted to go, and John insisted on it, so as it stood he was attending.

"Hey," Danny and John turned to Rusty, "We have a problem."

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AN: Please Review! I'd really like to know what you think.

Elle-05


	3. We Have a Problem

**The Cowan Job**

**Chapter 3 – We Have a Problem**

Disclaimer: Whilst I do plan on adding the odd original character, a vast majority of what is here belongs to 'Ocean's 11/12' and 'The Italian Job'.

Thank you PrInCeSsFBi, S., ghj, xxcaribbean, and Kelly for reviewing.

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"Livingston was able to calculate that the wall was put up some time in the past ten years." Rusty filled the team in, "in that time five other groups have attempted to steal from this museum, all failed."

"Hold on." Gordon stopped him, "So we can't get in because some guy set up a firewall?"

Livingston bristled slightly, "It's not a firewall," Rusty explained "It's bigger, like a two sided mirror, people on the outside can't get in, are reflected, but those in the inside can see right through it, chances are the electricians working for the museum don't even know it's there."

"But what does that mean?" One of the other guys prodded, Rusty suppressed the sudden juvenile urge to sigh and roll his eyes. Looking at the five clueless faces before him Rusty made a snap decision that he knew he would never regret.

"I means that we cannot get into the museum to do this job. You can all go home." He laid a hand on Livingston's shoulder to stop any protests on his part. At the back of the room John straightened out, clearly somewhat surprised by his decision, but Danny's face hardly even changed, as though this had been his very plan right from the beginning. Meanwhile the five clueless members had broken out in protest. "I'm sorry, there was no way we could have seen this," No one made any indication of leaving, "if anything else comes up we'll call you," Rusty promised.

Finally excepting what he was saying the room began to empty there were a few half-hearted goodbyes but mostly just glares. The more time Rusty spent with this lot the more convinced he became that he was right. As the door closed the other three men left in the room turned to stare at him.

"I can break that," Livingston told him, confident as Rusty had ever heard him. "I just need to know where it came from, the passwords are..."

"It's not about that," Rusty interrupted, "they aren't good enough, if we are going to do this we'll need a better team."

"And you'll need to speak to anyone who's tried to pull a job here in the past ten years."Livingston added. "If I know who did it I'll have a better idea of how to get passed it," He explained.

Rusty had just begun forming a new plan when John interrupted him "We don't have time for that." He sighed. Rusty was about to ask why but Livingston beat him to it. "Because my daughter's going to be married," his voice had an edge of exasperation in it, as though he had just been through this. Danny's eyes told Rusty all he needed to know, yes the conversation had been had, and yes they did have to go.

"We have time to speak to a few of the people though," Rusty concluded, "it's almost a week." Danny nodded, though John remained unsure. "I'll compile a list of everyone who's tried to steal from here in the past ten years, Livingston, see if there's any other way to narrow down the search." Rusty had grabbed his phone and left the room before John could argue that they might need to leave sooner.

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The bar was stingy, and yet surprisingly full, perhaps due to it being the only bar in the area which didn't have a theme.

Danny spotted Riley Wilks the moment he walked through the door. He had never met the man before, but Rusty's contacts had told them where to look and having done his job for as long as he had it was never hard for him to spot an ex-con man.

Danny gracefully manoeuvred himself onto the stool next to Wilks, ordering a scotch from the barkeeper as Rusty took the stool next to him. The three man sat silently for a few minutes, the younger two with their eyes focused on the small television whilst Wilks sent them glares out of the corner of his eyes, until eventually he gave an annoyed sigh and pushed his glass away, turning to face them.

"I'm too old for this." He informed them gruffly, "What do you want?"

Danny didn't even look up at the man's agitated tone, instead he took his time emptying his glass before answering. "We'd like to ask you about your time in Bulgaria six years ago." His tone was light and anyone listening to the conversation would have assumed it was simply two men speaking of their travels.

"I retired." He clearly thought this conversation should be over, "and if you have done your homework properly you would know that trip did not go to well." The white-haired man hardly gave them a passing glance as he prepared himself to leave.

"Mr Wilks," Rusty stopped him before he could stomp off, "Did you set up the firewall." The man slowed down.

"No I did not, you should be more thorough." When neither responded he continued "It was set up almost ten years ago, it just gets updated every few months, you're looking for an expert." Grabbing his coat the man walked away before Danny or Rusty could object again.

"So"

"Yeah"

Danny signalled the barkeeper for another round "Is there anyone?"

"Not alive."

"Perhaps John had more luck." The look Rusty shot at him said more than words could. They sipped at their drinks in silence. Right from the beginning they had hated walking off jobs, but it was looking increasingly likely that they were going to have to make that choice.

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_The far too bright sun shining onto the street did nothing to help the feeling running through him, which he wished he could blame on paranoia. I t had been almost a week since he had seen anyone. He had kept tabs though, and knew that the other guys hadn't gone home yet, but he also knew he couldn't call on them just yet, if ever._

_He wasn't so naive as to believe that he was the first this had happened to, not that the knowledge helped at all, it wasn't as though he could call on anyone to get any of his predecessor's stories._

_At the end of the alley he turned right; there was no break in his step even though he had never been in this area before and currently had no plan as to how to get to where he needed to be. There was a large man sitting outside a small café watching him. No doubt it was meant to be subtle, but these men weren't as well trained as they thought they were. The older man's eyes kept shifting to someone outside his line of sight. Not wanting to alert them that he knew they were there he continued forward moving straight into a large group of tourists. He forced himself to continue walking, waiting until he was completely surrounded by excited young people trying to practice their poor Italian, before he picked up his pace. The blooding pumping through his body shouldn't have affected him so severely. He had experience thinking through it. But this was worse, more intense than it ever was before, making the sound of his pulsing blood ring in his ears and his forehead to break out in perspiration._

_He moved towards the first small alleyway he saw. It was dark and the entrance was well hidden by the numerous stands set up before it. For not the first time he took a moment to thank people for their simple interests in things such as crafts and markets. Some of his simple pleasures were found here as well, in particular the way that the smallest of alleys could have so many exits off them; this alley was a perfect example. He took the second left; consecutive firsts could kill a man._

_He sped up to a run. Wonderful and dark as alleys may be they didn't last forever and did lack the protection stray people wandering about, making a shooter think twice, in case one of them should wander in front of a bullet. He wouldn't wish that on anyone else, he didn't want to go through it again himself._

_Sooner then he'd have liked, the man found himself at the end of the interconnecting alley web. He was in a small concreted courtyard. It was empty, save the small old water tap sitting in the centre. The areas silence was broken by a sound of footsteps behind him. Breaking his rule he moved to the first alley of the courtyard and started working the lock on the first door he saw. It opened much easier than it should have. He moved quickly through the townhouse, appalled at the stupidity of the owners for not updating their lock in the past twenty plus years as he searched for a safe place to watch any activity in the courtyard below._

_Taking a risk that he knew he was likely to regret, the man moved towards a window, being careful to leave a little of himself visible as he could. The large man he had seen at the café was already down, there as well as another younger man. They were speaking to each other in Italian and of the few words the man could hear, he understood very few of them. Before anything was even beginning to make sense both men fell silent as another joined them._

_He could not have been much older than the others but was far better dressed. He gave a few short orders which sent the others running whilst he walked calmly to the centre of the courtyard, and started looking around for open windows._

_The man quickly withdrew and moved to the other side of the small town house. A quick sweep out the window told him it would be possible to scale the building to the next window, from there it would be possible to move to the next building._

_Sliding the window open quietly the man continued to scan his surroundings as he moved quietly to find his footing on the small ledge. Pulling himself into standing position with the window the man started slowly itching towards the left, and was relieved to find that it was not as far to the next window as it had looked from inside._

_The man's fingers had just touched the next window when he was distracted by a noise beneath him. His head turned quickly in reaction to see where the noise had come from. His foot slipped on a small rock lying on the ledge and lost its placing on the ledge and with no time to recover himself, he fell._

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Please review, I'd really like to know what you think.

Elle-05


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